Apps seem to have made the most ordinary of tasks that little bit more enjoyable. Some of the things that I used to do anyway now have a little bit more magic to them. So I thought I’d share some of the Apps that have brought this magic into my life.

My current eco system is that of iOS. I own an iPhone 3G (I know I know) and an iPad 1 and here is my current top 5. Some have won awards. Others are very ordinary. But I think they highlight that meeting users where there are and allowing them to do what they do with a little extra sparkle can make a massive difference.

Flipboard

Flipboard, essentially, is an RSS reader. I’ve used many in the past with much the same functionality. You can read feeds (kind of important), you can share with Twitter, facebook, delicious, etc, and it syncs with Google Reader. Brilliant. But it’s the way it does it. Its auto layout of the articles in a magazine style view and the tactile pleasure of turning the pages make it a joy to use. The way image libraries and web links are integrated in the articles view is a great piece of innovation. Flipbaord is a great example of how you can reinvent the wheel and make a much better wheel.

ToDo

ToDo is a todo list manager. It’s does what a todo list manager does. You can sync with other devices and online services and all that good stuff. But it, quite simply, makes ticking off the tasks a pleasure. You can manage different lists, see combined views, list views, priority views, and arrange things however you want. But ultimately it is a pleasure to use. Turning pages, checking tasks, doing the simple things is rewarding and satisfying. Getting things done is now a little bit more magical

Guitar Toolkit

I like to twiddle but I am not really very musical. And so the Guitar Toolkit was perfect for me. It has many different tools that I don’t really use but, as I can’t tune by ear, having a guitar tuning in my pocket has meant that I have played far more often than I would have normally. Tuning up my guitar is something that I needed to do most days and this little piece of magic on my iPhone has made it a pleasure.

Sky Sports Football

This is a great example of why context is king. There are any number of places that I can find team news and latest scores during the football season. But rather than searching through the news pages of a site, with one tap I can access all of the latest information on my team when and where I want it.

Planetary

All this really does is allow you to play the music that you currently own on your device. It’s the same as the iPod app. That’s it. But wow, does it do it a magical way. Each artist in your collection is a star system. Each system has a planet which represents the albums. Each planet has a moon for each track on the album. The idea is that you navigate your way around the universe that is your music collection and rediscover those hidden gems that you’ve not listen to for a while.

There is nothing to it really. But it managers to bring that extra little bit of magic to the every day activity of listening to your music.